The Enemies of Time
by Aro Holmes
Summary: As the leaders of the new SHIELD, Loki and Aro must be prepared to protect Earth from its enemies, but they're about to be tested as the arrival of Aro's former master forces them into an epic battle with their greatest enemy of all, the forces of time itself. Sequel to God and Monster.
1. Origin Story

_**Disclaimer:** I do not own Twilight or Marvel's Avengers and have written this story purely for the free enjoyment of fans._

_**Author's Notes: **This is the sequel to my AU story God and Monster, which I recommend reading first as it explains many of the AU elements in this story. I'll just tell you upfront that this story is going to update slowly, mostly because I'm still trying to figure out what happens in it._

_The character of Aro's former master, Aquila, is based on Khan/John Harrison from Star Trek: Into Darkness. I was trying to think of someone worthy of having turned Aro and this just seemed right, although it's not a true cross-over._

_**Warnings:** Pervasive mature situations and some minor disturbing imagery._

* * *

The newly-built central headquarters of SHIELD was a small floating city, invisible from below, patrolling the planet it guarded and ruled. Its combined crew of humans, vampires, and one Asgardian royal had, in the short time since its launch, somehow managed to learn how to live together in relative peace. The unfortunate and costly chain of events that began when Loki unwisely called Jane a "mewling quim" aside, it was all going better than expected.

In the private quarters he shared with Loki, Aro lay on his back in bed, his dark hair spread out around him, a darkly gleaming contrast to the paleness of his bare skin.

Turning his head to the left, he could see clouds and light through the wide windows, the sun was just now appearing over the horizon. It promised to be a beautiful day, fine weather for their journey.

Somewhere in the depths of the headquarters, Marcus, Didyme, and Carlisle would already be in the R&D labs, hard at work on a mysterious humanitarian project that even Aro could not get his head around, aided by a pair of eager and absurdly young SHIELD scientists.

In the control room, Caius would be stalking the banks of computers, monitoring the progress of the Volturi guard as they continued to master the new skills of managing the massive endeavor that the SHIELD organization had become. Natasha would be there soon, and Gianna, and the other SHIELD agents and administrators that Caius was gradually becoming accustomed to working with.

Aro turned his head from the window to look to his right. Loki lay beside him on the bed, his breathing quiet as he slept, his heartbeat steady. Aro reached out his hand and lightly brushed the backs of his fingers down Loki's side, careful not to wake him, then he went back to staring up at the ceiling as he had been doing for the past few hours.

Despite being surrounded by everyone he loved, and many that he trusted, Aro felt completely isolated at the moment, prey to his own thoughts, victim to his own memories.

It is unusual for a vampire to remember being turned. Often the pain of the transformation erases all memories that came before. But just because Aro was able remember the circumstances surrounding his turning, did not mean that he wanted to. There are some things that are best forgotten. So why now, did his mind keep returning to those memories?

* * *

That last summer under the new pale sun of the Roman Republic, Aro had come to the conclusion that he would be dead before the winter. The cold, mathematical calculation had been easy to make, sitting with Didyme beside Marcus's bed and watching him breathe shallowly, his eyes closed, his body too weak to move more than a little each day.

At first they had merely thought Marcus was overtired. There had been some joking about resting up before his marriage to Didyme. That had been in the spring, when anything seemed possible. Now it was clear that Marcus was not merely ill, he was dying. He was only a few years older than Aro but now he looked much more than that.

Aro held his foster brother's huge, bony hand in his, feeling the weakness in it. Looking across, he watched Didyme preparing a damp cloth to lay across Marcus's forehead, her face set in concentration and sadness. Considering the rate of Marcus's decline, Aro speculated that he would be gone within the month. After that, Didyme would most certainly find a way to follow him. The two were bound so tightly together by their love, that Aro knew there would be no way to prevent her. And after that...Aro would have to do the same. He knew without a doubt that he could not live in a world where Marcus did not also exist, at least he could not live in it alone. If it were possible for Didyme to live, then Aro would have lived for her sake, to take care of her, but he knew she would not allow him this. If only Caius were here. Fiercely devoted Caius. Then Aro might have survived. But Caius was dead, killed in battle nearly eight years ago now.

The certainty of death gripped Aro for days, numbing him to the dry heat of the summer and the warm light of the sun. He spent most of his time indoors, helping Didyme tend to Marcus, going out only in the evening to the homes of his friends, scholars and philosophers, whose eager conversations about completely theoretical subjects were a superficial distraction. This is how he had met Aquila, a newcomer to Aro's town, tall, pale and dark-haired, good-looking in an odd kind of way with strange, compelling eyes that were almost completely black.

Aquila had quickly become the only thing that Aro could find truly interesting in a world that was increasingly not his own, so when Aquila invited him to his home one evening, Aro accepted. He sent a message back to let Didyme know not to expect him back until later, knowing she would spend the night as she always did, curled up next to Marcus, unwilling to leave him even for a moment. Aro felt a terrible guilt for not doing the same, but Aquila's attentions made him desperate to feel alive again, even for a brief time.

Aquila's body was strangely cold and hard, like a kind of pliable marble. But perhaps this was normal for the place he had come from. He was achingly gentle with Aro, caressing his body with his hands, and softly kissing along his spine. It had been so long since Aro had experienced any kind of tenderness that it hurt him to feel it now, and he whimpered as though in pain, clutching the bedclothes with his fists.

Afterward, Aquila rolled him onto his back and looked down at him with concern, lightly brushing away the tears on Aro's face.

"Have I hurt you?"

Aro shook his head. "I'm sorry, it's my own sorrow that pains me."

"It is not possible to be comforted by others?" Aquila's deep voice was low, matching the dim light of the room.

"Perhaps there are some wounds that cannot be healed," said Aro, thinking of faithful Didyme.

"Perhaps you do not want to be comforted," said Aquila, his mouth curving into a smile that was unsettlingly wide and v-shaped. "Perhaps you would prefer that I take you apart now, piece by piece, and cut out that troublesome heart of yours, where the pain lives and torments you."

A shiver of fear ran through Aro, and he made a sudden attempt to sit up. Aquila held him in place with one hand, making no visible effort. He reared above Aro, longer, darker, stronger than he had appeared before.

"What are you?" Aro asked. He could hear his heart beating frantically and became aware that Aquila had no heartbeat, was not even breathing.

"Something..._better_," said Aquila, cocking his head sardonically.

"Please…." whispered Aro, even though he knew instinctively that there was no escape.

"Oh surely you don't want me to spare your life," Aquila mocked. "So you can return to the squalid misery of your dying family?"

He lunged downward, like a striking serpent, and sunk his teeth into Aro's neck. A harsh, burning pain spread swept through Aro's body, taking his breath away and completely immobilizing him. He could not cry out, he could not struggle. Aquila broke away from Aro's neck and kissed him possessively, so that Aro's last human memory was of the taste of his own blood.

* * *

When Aro woke from the hell-fires of Hades naked and in unfamiliar surroundings, he was not surprised to see his younger foster-brother sitting next to him, watching him intently. Caius looked even more beautiful than he had in life, and this too seemed expected.

"Cai...Caius?"

"You know me?" Caius asked with great relief. "You remember me?"

Aro laughed, giddy with joy. "Of course, my brother, gods how I've missed you!" He sat up and hugged Caius tightly. There was a strange buzzing sensation in his mind when he touched Caius but he ignored it, too filled with happiness at the reunion to care.

"You're not dead," said Caius, his voice muffled by Aro's hair. "I know you think you are. I thought the same when it happened to me."

Aro pulled back and saw for the first time that Caius's eyes were blood-red, like those of a bird of prey.

"What…?" He looked down at his own skin, pale and bloodless, like that of Aquila.

Aquila.

Aro stood and turned slowly to see Aquila watching them from the doorway with a smug look of satisfaction and ownership. Aro could see him for what he was now, a powerful being, intelligent and cunning, possessing a terrible attraction, like the undertow of a crushing wave.

"He found me on the battlefield and made me like him," said Caius from behind Aro. "He has been my master ever since."

"And shall I call you master as well?" Aro asked grimly, his eyes fixed on Aquila.

Aquila only smiled. He did not need to answer.

Aro's throat burned him and he found it hard to concentrate on anything else while Caius showed him around the remote stone building where Aquila lived, far from Aro's town. At last, Aquila took his hand and led him out into the cool night, pointing to the sea when Aro asked where they were going. There was an undeniable joy to finding that you could run as fast as the wind, and that a wild landscape could now be crossed as easily as a smooth floor.

Aquila took Aro down to the edge of the sea cliffs, where the slaves for the ships were kept. Aro could not think of them as people, they were abstract concepts to him now. He could only think of the warm blood in his mouth, filling his body with a kind of internal radiance. Aquila killed for him, swift, silent, and coldly efficient, nothing more than a shadow in the darkness. He had to pull Aro away when he thought he had fed enough, and dragged him halfway up the narrow cliff path to recover.

Aro wrenched himself out of Aquila's grasp, and in so doing, realized that he was now stronger than his master. This gave him pause and Aquila regarded him with eager interest, waiting for him to decide what do with this information.

"I could kill you," said Aro.

"You could try," agreed Aquila.

Aro felt an instinctive urge rise up in him that was similar to the bloodlust he had felt while feeding but altogether different in purpose. He dove at Aquila and shoved him back against the cliff-face. Aquila's hands grasped Aro's head roughly, hard enough to hurt, he was grinning now, that terrible predatory smile, and then united by the same intent, they were kissing with savage passion. Solid rock splintered and cracked as Aro found their positions reversed and he began to understand just how much Aquila had been holding back their first time together. It was nothing, nothing like Aro's previous experiences, and it bound him to his new master more than anything else could.

This was when Aro understood that he had become a monster, with the taste of human blood still on his tongue, and Aquila's hand pressed over his mouth to keep him from crying out when the pleasure became too intense. A boundary had been crossed and there was no going back.

* * *

"The first year is the worst," said Caius, when he and Aro were alone together. They were sitting on the roof of Aquila's house under the star-filled night sky, Caius nestled in Aro's arms as he had done when he was a child. "After that, you get used to it all. The killing becomes second-nature." He heaved a deep sigh and pressed closer to Aro who held him tightly, resting his cheek on Caius's white-blond head. "I wish he hadn't turned you!" he exclaimed angrily.

"Hush," said Aro soothingly. "He'll hear you."

Caius sighed again and turned his face to Aro's chest. Aro stroked his hair gently and curled his other hand around Caius's. The buzzing sensation in his mind that arose each time he touched Caius grew stronger in the silence. It wasn't an entirely unpleasant feeling and Aro focused on it, pushing through it with his thoughts until….

"What is it?" Caius whispered in alarm when he felt Aro's body tense. He sat upright, anticipating an approaching danger or prey.

"Shhh," said Aro. He took Caius's hand between his own and bent over it. He hadn't been sure a moment ago but now he was certain. Aro raised his face to the stars with a look of wonder and exaltation.

"Aro," hissed Caius impatiently.

Aro laughed and seized Caius's face in his hands. "I can see your mind, brother, all your memories, what you're thinking right now, it's amazing. I don't know how I'm doing it, it's just like knowing, instantly, everything you know."

Caius's mind underwent an internal struggle, between anger at the violation and relief at being so completely known by his beloved foster brother. But nowhere in his mind was disbelief or surprise.

Aro sobered. "I'm not the first one you've seen," he said quietly.

Caius's pale features gleamed in the darkness but he was silent, knowing that Aro could see everything now.

Aquila was often away from home, sometimes returning with another strange new prize. Each one was different, some more suited to battle, others to subversion. Aquila sent them all away again, dispatching them to mysterious locations, sometimes alone, sometimes in groups. Only Caius remained a permanent resident.

* * *

Caius lived in a room of maps and calculations. Aro sifted through them with new understanding, carefully examining the parchment tacked to the walls, the wax tablets that covered the large table in the center of the room, and the models, made of wood, that represented abstract strategies even Caius did not completely comprehend.

Caius reached out his hand and took Aro's as they gazed at these models, each troubled in their own way.

_He gives me the parameters and the different factors of hypothetical battles, he wants to know all the possible outcomes._

Aro frowned darkly, his mind, now so wide-open and expansive, pushed at Caius's limited knowledge, searching for the rest, as one caught in a spider's web who looks to see where the spider sits.

Aquila let Aro kill for himself now, which gave Aro the opportunity to test his new talent. Now in the moment before death, his victims opened their minds to him, complicated tangles of thought and memory that all ended in Aro. Only one person seemed immune to him, and that was Aquila. When he touched Aquila's skin, there was nothing, it was like touching stone.

Aquila smirked at him knowingly one day when they were lying together and Aro was frowning over Aquila's arm, running his fingertips up and down the smooth white skin in suppressed frustration.

"You won't succeed, little Aro, I have defenses you'll never penetrate," he said mockingly.

Aro looked up in surprise. Up until now, he hadn't been sure if Aquila knew what he could do.

"I always know what my family's talents are," said Aquila in explanation. "That is my talent, in addition to my immunity."

"You knew what I could do before you turned me," said Aro in sudden realization.

Aquila grinned superiorly. "Of course, why else would I have done so? Did you think I turned you just so I could have a pleasing bedmate?"

"Why do you need us? All the ones you turn?"

"I need your talents. I need you to serve my purposes, to help me achieve my victory."

Aro stared at Aquila, as though he could pierce his mind through sight alone.

"Victory over what, who is your enemy?" he asked.

"When I'm satisfied that you are in control of your instincts, then you will know."

"You'll send me away, like the others."

"Yes, this place is but a waystation. Caius remains here so that he may work undisturbed."

Aro was about to press for more details but Aquila was suddenly on top of him again, and Aro was not yet in enough control of his instincts to resist the dark pull of desire that immediately clouded his mind.

* * *

During the sun-drenched day, when they were not allowed outside, Aro made Caius show him his maps and figures again and again. Caius watched him, eyebrows raised, waiting for the answer to his brother's search.

"He means to wage war against a strange company, creatures who can bend reality to their will," said Aro quietly, tracing his fingers over a map that had no recognizable boundary lines.

"Creatures like us?" asked Caius.

Aro shook his head. "Similar but not the same. He means to destroy them utterly. But here, look, there and there…."

Aro shifted three maps together and placed a clean wax tablet in the middle.

"He's had you create three different possible outcomes to this one plan of attack, but what if he's lied to you by omission, made you assume that only one of these outcomes will happen. What if all three did happen?"

"That's not possible," said Caius, starting to wonder if his brother's mind had been affected by his turning. He had heard of this from time to time, the madness that could set in if the vast powers of the transformed mind was not disciplined and kept in check.

"Humor me, brother."

Caius sighed and bent over the tablet with a stylus, calculations flowing onto the soft surface until he stopped suddenly, caught by an understanding of what he had just configured.

To the victor go the spoils of battle.

Unless the battle results in complete destruction and there is nothing left to claim. It is a cruel victor who plans for such an outcome.

The brothers gazed at the tablet in silence for some time, then raised their heads and looked at each other.

"There is no battlefield that large," said Caius. "It's larger than the known world."

"Then it is the obliteration of the known world and beyond which will constitute victory for our master."

Caius was silent. There was no further need for discussion.

* * *

Two against one was a rapidly failing strategy. The final stand took place on the roof, in the dark under a steady rain. Caius lay on the stones where he had fallen, his head bisected between his upper and lower jaw, the rest of his body a few feet away. He twitched slightly but could not move enough to put himself back together.

There was no sound but the rain and the scraping of boots on stone as Aro and Aquila struggled, locked together in a desperate attempt at supremacy. Aro was missing part of an arm and he had shoved the remaining stump into Aquila's chest to give himself leverage while with the other hand he gripped the underside of Aquila's jaw and shoved upwards. Aquila resisted him, both of his hands forcing Aro's hand downward. Their teeth were bared from the strain, rain slicking down their dark hair.

Aquila was more experienced, and more ruthless, but Aro had newborn strength and the urgency of someone who knows he is the last obstacle holding back the end of the world. Aro pushed until he thought his strength might actually give out and then went on pushing, until finally, miraculously, cracks began to form along Aquila's neck and finally, finally the stony resistance gave way.

* * *

Didyme woke slowly. She thought she must have been having nightmares, of being trapped in a burning building, but when she moved, there was no pain, save for what felt like an insistent sore throat. She needed water, she needed….

Didyme opened her eyes and saw that Marcus was lying next to her. Her first thought was that he had died during the night. His skin was almost white and he wasn't visibly breathing. She reached out her hand and grasped his, flooded with relief when he stirred and tightened his hand around hers, tighter than he had been able to manage for some time now.

Didyme sat up and realized she was in a strange place, not at all where she had fallen asleep. She turned and saw Aro sitting a few feet away, cradling Caius's head in his lap, a cloth binding Caius's jaws together as though he had suffered an injury recently. But Caius should be dead, and so should Aro, whose body had never been found but who it seemed had appeared to her just the night before, cold and flame-eyed, into whose arms she had run immediately, love overcoming fear.

Aro looked up and smiled at her when he saw that she was awake, happiness and sadness in his expression in equal measure.

* * *

Aro suddenly became conscious that Loki was kissing him. Awareness of the present returned in a rush, like a light switched on in a dark room. Loki's tongue was in his mouth and Loki's body was moving against his. Aro breathed in deeply, drawing in Loki's scent, and returned the kiss with fervent energy, running his fingers into the dark plumes of Loki's hair, and lifting himself to allow Loki to enter him.

Loki thrust into Aro eagerly, sliding his hands over the contours of Aro's body, kissing and biting Aro's neck, shoulders, and chest, while Aro's slender fingers raked over his back. Aro gave himself over to Loki entirely, his body ready and responsive to every incitement and stimulation Loki devised.

Loki grinned, there was for him no greater enjoyment than to take Aro with Aro himself as willing accomplice. He reached between them and wrapped his hand around Aro, making him gasp, his head tilting back.

"Say my name, Aro," Loki commanded.

"Loki," Aro complied, his voice like a caress.

"Again," said Loki, his other hand slid over Aro's chest, taking full advantage of the sensitive skin there, before closing around Aro's neck and pinning him to the bed.

"Loki…." Aro's voice was ragged.

Loki increased the speed of his movements, driving harder into Aro. His senses were completely filled with Aro, his body and scent, the feel of him inside, the current of Loki's own magic that lived in Aro's venom. At that moment sunlight caught the level of the window and poured through the room, surrounding Loki in the radiance of Aro's faceted skin.

"Again, say my name again," Loki commanded, his voice rising with excitement.

Aro pressed his face to the underside of Loki's jaw. "Loki Silvertongue," he hissed, in low, drawn-out syllables that echoed through Loki's body and overpowered him completely. Loki convulsed violently, taking Aro with him, their minds so intermingled that Aro felt the trigger of Loki's climax as though it within his own body.

Loki hovered over Aro's lips while he regained his own breath, caressing them with his fingers and mouth before kissing him deeply and lingeringly. Aro smiled widely, laughing from the joy of being with Loki, of being back with Loki after an eternity of his own mind.

Loki raised his head and quirked a sardonic eyebrow at Aro.

"Well? I'm _waiting_."

"What?" Aro asked, momentarily too distracted to find the answer in Loki's mind.

"I asked you what you were thinking about."

Aro found the moment in Loki's memories and frowned. "You did, I'm sorry."

"When you didn't reply, I had to take some 'extreme' measures." Loki grinned.

Aro laughed, but the idea that he hadn't been aware of Loki talking to him was disquieting.

"Well?" Loki repeated.

"I was thinking of the past."

"You have been far too troubled by the past lately." Loki said, his eyebrows coming together in concern.

_I'm worried about you._

"I'm worried too, I hold the memories not only of myself and my family, but also of millions who I've touched, if I can't control what I think about, I may lose my mind entirely." Aro winced, by speaking lightly he had meant to lessen Loki's concerns but they multiplied under his fingers.

"I'm fine," he added, unconvincingly, and slid out from under Loki to cross the room and open his wardrobe, dressing in a blur of dark motion.

"You could tell me what you're thinking of in the past," said Loki, his own clothing materializing around him as he rose from the bed and advanced to Aro. "I could share your burden, ease your worries."

"It doesn't bear thinking of," said Aro, "not by anyone, even me." He smoothed down Loki's tie abstractedly, his mind already starting to drift away again.

Loki raised Aro's chin and kissed him. Aro kissed him back gratefully, pushing his hand under Loki's jacket to grasp the back of his neck. If he could just stay here like this, using Loki's mind as a refuge, but there was a danger there as well. He absolutely must not lose himself. In truth, the certainty of standing between the world and its ultimate destruction had never really left him. It had driven everything he had done since and it had only grown stronger over time. In this moment, it seemed immediate, as though the danger, so long viewed only in the distance, were now fast approaching.


	2. Lost

_Warning: mature content_

* * *

Aro's daily tour of SHIELD's control room was always an event. It occurred to Natasha, watching him make the rounds this particular morning, that it would have been completely overwhelming to be part of his coven in the pre-transformation days. The power, the attraction, the desire for his attention and the fear of his disapproval, all within the inverted world of a secret society. It must have been so easy to get completely wrapped up in this strange man, with his boyish grin and his anime heroine eyes, all combined with the effortless grace and superiority of an accomplished killer.

Natasha sighed, this wasn't difficult for her to imagine because she struggled with Aro's presence on a constant basis. Part of her wanted to follow him around like a tame pet and part of her wanted to kill him for it. And she might have once when the Volturi had first taken over SHIELD, if he hadn't so plainly trusted her enough to give her the respect of an equal. He had never once asked to hold her hand, although it must have been tempting at times instead of listening to her debrief him at length on the complexities of SHIELD operations.

She had been working with Demetri on new specifications for the containment of the Tesseract, but now she let him get on with his algorithms, standing with her hand unconsciously resting on the back of her chair as her eyes remained fixed on Aro's progress through the control room.

He had paused by the twins now, brushing Alec's hair the wrong way, then smoothing it back, hugging Jane and kissing the top of her head. Human fourteen year olds would have resented being treated like small children in public but the twins clearly loved it, laughing and joking contentedly with their parent.

Aro was being particularly touchy-feely today, Natasha thought. While he maintained a polite distance from the SHIELD agents, he made more physical contact than was strictly necessary with all the vampires in the control room, holding Irina's hand while she showed him her latest research, brushing his fingers over Felix's face as they spoke together, even caressing Gianna's arm when she brought him reports to review, an old habit she was obviously happy for him to continue.

Slowly, Aro worked his way across the vast control room until he reached Caius. Natasha took a deep breath and waited with rising anxiety. Aro reached companionably for Caius's hand and Caius pulled it back, putting his hands behind his back. Intrigued, Aro teased him, grinning, while Caius scowled and looked away. Finally he gave in and held out his hand. Aro took it eagerly and then gasped in open-mouthed surprise and delight.

Natasha turned away quickly, not wanting to see Aro look in her direction. A moment later Aro appeared by her side.

"Good morning," Natasha said without looking at him. She leaned forward and scrolled through one of her touch screens, managing to appear completely absorbed.

Aro didn't reply and after a few moments she was forced to turn her head. He was grinning at her with an expression of exuberant joy, his hands clasped in front of him.

"I'm so happy," he breathed, his green eyes wide.

"Yes, I can see that," said Natasha dryly. She looked back at the screens. "I wouldn't get too excited, it was just one night."

"You know that's not true," said Aro, ducking his head toward her in an attempt to keep eye contact. "Marcus has been observing your bond for months now, it was just a matter of time."

Natasha glanced at Demetri who was studiously pretending not to hear anything, and wondered if she could persuade Aro to have this conversation at another time. Most likely not, considering how excited he was. She forced herself to look at him again.

"Your brother and I, this might not be such a good idea as a long-term thing," she admitted quietly, "knowing that you're going to know everything. I'm not sure I'm ready for that kind of transparency, it's a little too much out of my comfort zone if you know what I mean."

She felt her face start to flush. Natasha wasn't self-conscious about her body, but with the level of intimate knowledge that Aro now possessed...she might as well have slept with him last night instead of Caius.

"You're embarrassed, I'm sorry," said Aro with earnest sincerity. "But honestly, there's no shame in me seeing things like that. With everything I know and can know, there's really nothing left for me not to know. As for instance, knowing that Demetri likes Felix to slap him in the face during sex isn't of any real importance to me, it's just another thing I know about them."

Demetri winced. "Master…." he said a little plaintively.

"Sorry, Demi," said Aro, ruffling his hair affectionately.

Natasha repressed a smile. "I suppose I could get used to it, eventually."

Aro reached out his hand to her, his fingers hovering carefully inches from her face. "I really am pleased, for both of you. You absolutely have my blessing."

Natasha smiled, in spite of her reservations about Aro's powers of attraction, she felt real warmth from his approval.

Aro beamed fondly in his brother's direction, although Caius had pointedly turned his back to them. Caius's admirers over the centuries had invariably assumed that he would be cold and dominating as a lover, even violently sadistic. It was always a surprise, usually an unwelcome one, to discover how sweet he was, particularly in bed. What delighted Aro so much about his brother's memories of the previous night was that Natasha seemed to have already figured Caius out, to have sensed a kinship between the two of them, both children of violence and deprivation, hiding their vulnerability away, prepared to meet anyone who got close to them with a punch in the face and yet in the end heartbreakingly grateful when someone did figure them out.

Underneath his pleasure, however, was that underlying guilt that he would always feel for his younger brother. Guilt at not being able to stop him from running off to war as a teenager, guilt that he had been alone and at Aquila's mercy for so long, guilt at not being able to protect him during that terrible night when Aquila had laughed at their challenge and torn Caius apart mouth from jaw.

Caius had cried for Aro afterward, when Aquila lay finally in pieces. Aro could hear Caius's pleas through his skin as he bound the two halves of his brother's head back together with strips of his clothing. Aro had sobbed with relief and self-recrimination, the rain streaking down his face a substitute for the tears he could no longer shed. He had nearly forgotten Aquila then, carrying Caius's immobilized body down into the house, that piteous broken head cradled against his chest.

"Aro...Aro, are you ok?" Natasha was looking at him with concern.

Aro realized that he had been staring sightlessly off into space, frozen into a statue. He jerked back into awareness quickly and gave Natasha a reassuring little smile.

"I'm fine, just thinking," he replied, and laid his hand on the back of Demetri's neck, distracting himself with the machine language of Demetri's thoughts.

Normally Demetri wouldn't have taken special notice of the touch but Aro's body felt unusually tense and Demetri turned to look at him questioningly, without gaining a response.

Natasha's attention was drawn upward, to the glass-walled observation deck that formed Aro and Loki's base of operations. Loki was standing overlooking the main control room, a notebook in his hand, watching Aro with intense concentration, and something suspiciously like fear.

* * *

Carlisle glanced up from his work when he heard the approaching sound of Loki's distinctively-chambered heart.

"Are we expecting visitors today?" he asked Marcus.

Marcus shook his head, too absorbed in manipulating the holographic diagram in front of him to look up.

Carlisle glanced over at Didyme and the two young SHIELD scientists, engaged in constructing scaled-down prototypes for their project. At the moment Didyme and the girl were laughing helplessly over the perfect impression the boy was giving of Caius on a bad day. Carlisle decided that whatever business Loki had, it would be best if he didn't interrupt the peaceful environment of the R&D labs. Quietly, he laid down his instruments and slipped out the door, meeting Loki as he rounded the corner into the corridor.

Loki's worried appearance made Carlisle immediately concerned. His sharp eyebrows were drawn together, giving his lean features a look of uncertainty that was at odds with the determined set of his mouth.

"What's wrong, you haven't gotten into another fight with Jane have you?" Carlisle asked quickly.

Loki grimaced. The incident, and its attendant humiliating memories of fiery unimaginable pain, was still a raw subject for him.

"I need to talk to you about Aro," he said quietly, hoping that the vampires inside the lab couldn't hear him. "Not here." He motioned Carlisle to follow him back along the corridor.

"He's ill, I'm sure of it," he explained as they walked along. "And he's hiding it, as though it's a threat that he alone must face."

"Does he know we're talking about him?" asked Carlisle. Keeping secrets from Aro was always a temporary experience, soon lost.

Loki smiled a little. "Not yet."

* * *

Aro listened to Demetri's report with half his attention, the other half caught by the sight of Loki and Carlisle ascending into the observation deck via its private lift. He watched them curiously and then tensely as they began a seemingly serious conversation, their heads close together and shoulders hunched as though discussing something both secret and urgent.

"Just a moment, Demi," Aro murmured, silencing Demetri with a touch.

"Do you think he's alright?" Natasha whispered to Demetri as Aro walked off.

Demetri shrugged. "He's always a little unbalanced…." he began tentatively and then gave up, shrugging again. "Who can tell? It's Aro."

Aro moved to get a closer look at the observation deck, and then unable to stand it any longer, leapt upwards, landing on the ledge that circled the deck and sliding one of the glass wall panels open.

Immediately, Loki grabbed him and pulled him inside, then flicked the switch that turned the glass walls opaque.

"God, you're easy," said Carlisle. "People just have to look like they're having a private conversation and you come running."

"What's going on?" Aro asked in surprise as Loki and Carlisle compelled him into the nearest chair.

"Loki says you've been having blackouts," said Carlisle, pulling out a hand-held light and shining it in Aro's eyes.

Aro batted Carlisle's hand away gently. "I haven't been blacking out. That's not possible for a vampire anyway, you know that."

"Now that Loki has rewritten the laws of vampire biology, anything is possible," said Carlisle, undeterred. He forced Aro's mouth open and started taking a sample of his venom.

"I've just been preoccupied," Aro said, somewhat incoherently because Carlisle was delving into his mouth.

"So preoccupied that you can't hear someone talking to you?" Carlisle remarked, drawing out the instrument and bagging it.

"I have an exceptionally full mind," said Aro lightly, attempting to stand up, "I'm bound to get lost in it from time to time."

Loki shoved him back down. "It's more than that, you know it, Aro."

His intense expression frightened Aro and he turned quickly to Carlisle.

"I don't want anyone else in the family to find about this," he pleaded, fingering the doctor's sleeve. "Please, dear Carlisle, I don't want to worry them."

Carlisle took his hand reassuringly. "I am yours to command, my Master, as well as being your doctor which gives you a reasonable amount of confidentiality. But in return you have to be honest with me."

"I keep remembering things that happened in the past," said Aro, forcing himself to speak, as though his words were held prisoner inside of him. Loki took his hand and squeezed it gently.

_Thank you._

"A specific event?" Carlisle asked.

Aro nodded glumly.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Carlisle exchanged glances with Loki. "Perhaps just with me?"

Aro sighed. "I don't need a therapist, if that's what you mean. I've been remembering my turning. I don't know why. I don't normally dwell on it so much. I'm just finding it difficult to concentrate on anything else."

"Do you think this might be a result of the transformation?" Loki asked Carlisle quietly.

"Hmm," mused Carlisle. "Could be, but no one else has reported anything like this. In fact, if I had to make a general observation, I would say that concentration has improved for all of us rather than being diminished. I've been thinking it had to do with the absence of bloodlust."

"Fury's poison then?" Aro asked. "I was technically dead for a few moments there. Perhaps my venom didn't rebuild me entirely."

"That's when I first noticed you getting so preoccupied," said Loki.

"Not like this," said Aro. "Nothing like this. No, this, this is new." He stood and paced, coming to a stop in front of the windows that looked out to the sky and clouds. His own reflection looked back at him, his large green eyes full of worry. Full of….

Aquila's frozen eyes had watched Aro as he burned. Aro had set the fire as soon as the rain had ceased, unsure of whether Aquila's stony body could burn, but unable to think of another way of finally destroying something that died and yet could not die. Aro had squinted a little at him through the flames from a safe distance, trying to understand what lay behind those eyes. Anger? Resentment? Betrayal?

When the flames had died away into ash, and this too started to drift away in the pale light of dawn, Aro had looked up at the fading stars and wondered why he did not feel relief or a sense of freedom from the battle won. Why did his victory now feel so much like tragedy?

Another time after a hunt, he and Aquila had raced each other through the pitch-black night, naked and laughing, until Aquila brought him to the ground, rolling him onto his back. They had paused like that, Aro looking up eagerly, his eyes shining with anticipation, Aquila pinning him down in a display of strength. In that brief moment, Aquila had looked almost human, his usual covetous expression softened into something like...like….

Did it feel like tragedy when he burned Aquila because he had killed the thing he loved? Or because he had ended his last taste of freedom, before the heavy weight of responsibility had borne down upon him?

Aro came back to reality with a violent snap. The side of his face stung with pain. He stared dazed and shocked at a scared looking Caius who was hesitating with his hand upraised for another blow.

"Ok...how about we don't do that again?" intervened Carlisle, gently pulling Caius's arm down.

Aro turned his head and saw that besides Caius, his other siblings and Natasha had also arrived and were standing watching him tensely. He looked around at them in confusion, like the victim of a magic trick when the blindfold is pulled off.

"That's the longest he's been out," said Loki harshly. He interlaced his fingers with Aro's and ran the back of his other hand soothingly down Aro's cheek.

Aro leaned toward him, instinctively seeking the comfort of Loki's mind. Instead, what he picked up was blurred, almost unintelligible, as though it were being strained through layers of fine mesh.

"This is your handiwork, isn't it?" demanded Caius, turning on Loki. "He was the first vampire you transformed, something must have gone wrong!"

"We don't know enough to start making accusations," said Marcus reasonably, stepping between his volatile brother and equally volatile brother-in-law.

"And you, Aro, you're supposed to be our coven leader and yet you deliberately kept your condition from us. You may have endangered us all!"

Loki held up his hand warningly. "Leave him alone, Caius, there are times when your sniveling does more harm than good."

Caius's eyebrows went up dangerously, and Marcus pushed him firmly back.

Aro was concentrating so hard on Loki's mind that he was startled when Marcus leaned over him, a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Carlisle said you keep thinking about when you were turned."

Aro looked up into his kind face and could not answer. He had made Caius promise that they would never tell anyone what had happened, that no one but them would carry the burden of Aquila's legacy in their immortal life. He pressed Marcus's arm and shook his head.

"It's nothing worth thinking of."

Didyme came forward and linked her arm through Aro's. "Don't worry, we'll figure this out. We'll turn over all the lab time to this. Between Carlisle and I, and our assistants, and Loki of course, there's no mystery we can't solve." She smiled at him, trying to get through to him with her talent.

Aro touched her face and smiled back at her, at her large pretty eyes that were his own, and the thick dark eyebrows that only she had inherited from their father. But all he could think of was the last night he had been human, how she had felt when he hadn't returned home, like the last person left alive in the world. It made the happiness Didyme was trying to fill him with useless. His cold, dead heart felt colder than ever. He couldn't feel any of them, he was completely and utterly alone, in the middle of his nearest relations.

Everyone began to talk at once about possible causes but it all sounded like white noise to Aro now. He ran his thumb back and forth over Loki's hand, trying to improve the contact but nothing happened. If anything, he was hearing less and less of Loki's mind. The more he pushed, the more it receded away from him, a vanishing pinpoint of light in a dark void.

Aro abruptly moved for the door that led back into the interior of the headquarters, dragging a surprised Loki with him.

"Where do you think you're going?" demanded Caius, blocking the way. "We're not done here, you can't just keep pretending this isn't happening."

"I'd just like to spend a little time alone with my mate before I lose my mind entirely, not that I need your permission, brother," returned Aro, far more viciously than he had intended.

He felt a stab of pain when he saw the hurt expression in Caius's face, there for only a second before it was replaced by a protective mask of annoyance.

* * *

"Aro, slow down, you're not well," pleaded Loki. He struggled to keep up with Aro's lightning pace as they sped down the labyrinthine corridors of the SHIELD headquarters, his hand still firmly in Aro's grasp. Suddenly, he found himself shoved into a maintenance storage area, knocking over various spare parts and cleaning supplies. Aro was grasping Loki's jacket labels in his fists and looking a little wild-eyed.

"Let's go back," Loki said coaxingly, smoothing down Aro's disarranged hair. "We need to find a solution to this…." His last words were cut off by Aro kissing him aggressively. Despite his concerns, Loki couldn't help but respond, his fingers running into Aro's hair as he returned the kiss, hard and passionate. It was difficult for him to resist any opportunity to be with Aro and the thrill of being dominated by him quickly erased any rational thought.

They were usually rough with each other but this felt different, even dangerous. Aro's mouth and hands were hard and punishing, his fingers bruised Loki as he ripped through the cloth of his suit and shirt to get at his skin, his sharp teeth getting far too close to ripping through Loki himself.

_Careful, be careful,_ Loki thought, but Aro seemed blind and unresponsive, as though he couldn't hear him at all. It was a harsh, uncomfortable feeling, to make contact with Aro and not be able to communicate with him. It cut through the static of Loki's rising desire and sobered him back to reality. Aro was fighting blind, desperate to break through whatever curse had taken him hostage.

Loki vanished from Aro's embrace and grabbed hold of him from behind, restraining him firmly. Aro struggled violently, snarling at the interruption, his teeth bared.

"Stop fighting me," urged Loki, struggling to overcome Aro's strength as he writhed in his grasp. "Just relax, and let me handle this, let me take over."

Aro growled and then subsided, tense and miserable in Loki's arms.

"Let me take care of you," said Loki, in a softer voice, not yet trusting Aro enough to loosen his hold.

Aro nodded mutely, staring straight ahead.

Carefully, Loki slid his hands from Aro's arms, one palm flattening against Aro's chest and the other bracing himself against the nearest wall. He dissolved their clothing in vanishing wisps of color and entered Aro in the same moment. Aro closed his eyes but made no other response.

Loki leaned forward so that their faces were close, his lips brushed along Aro's ear and jawline as he began to move with infinite gentleness. His bare skin slid silkily against Aro's, their cool bodies together forming a kind of heat that was unique to them alone.

Aro let out his breath despairingly. "Loki, I can't…."

"Hush," Loki whispered soothingly against his neck. "Just relax. I have you, I won't let go."

Gradually, with agonizing slowness, the tension in Aro's body began to uncoil under Loki's patient movement. And with that came a gradual return to Loki's mind, the terrible clouding of their connection fading out until all the comfort was there again. Loki's thoughts and feelings, precise and solid.

Aro sighed deeply and leaned his head back, turning his face towards Loki. He lifted his hand to his chest and splayed it over Loki's hand, then guided it downwards until Loki wrapped his fingers around Aro, the movement of his hand now in unison with that of his body. Loki pushed deeper without changing his steady pace, moaning a little as Aro gripped his wrist and pressed back against him. His mouth found Aro's at the end and this time Aro's kiss was soft and yielding.

Afterward, Loki held Aro tightly, their faces close together.

"I'm frightened," Aro said quietly.

"I know," said Loki. "Don't be afraid."

Aro turned and put his arms around Loki, leaning their foreheads together. Loki took Aro's face in his hands and smoothed his fingers over it.

"What if the next time, I can't come back to you?" asked Aro. "What if I'm lost forever, inside my memories, and never hear you again?"

"You can never be lost from me," said Loki intensely. "I'm always with you, there is no going away and coming back for us. We can never be parted."

A desperate, inarticulate desire seized Aro and he pushed at it, refusing to let it drift away from him. The magic that lived in his venom moved outward, driven by his determination, until it extended beyond his body and joined with the magic that was Loki's. Aro gave a sharp cry as the contact was made and Loki gasped, his eyes rolling back in his head.

Something was inside Loki, not his body or his mind but some other inner part of him. The something was warm and tactile. It grinned at Loki without a mouth and spoke to him in a voice that was not a voice, but was completely, entirely familiar, a voice he had always known and always would know. Inside himself, Loki smiled back, touched and spoke to it without touch or speech, examined it from all angles. It was, completely and unmistakably, Aro. Not his mind, reaching inside Loki's with a vampire's talent, but something else, the part of Aro that was essentially him, that existed beyond thought and beyond physical existence. Humans spoke of souls, but the word was inadequate to describe the meeting that had taken place.

Loki looked at Aro wonderingly. Aro was smiling broadly at him, triumphant and gleeful. Loki laughed, tears in his eyes.

"How did...?" Loki began, and then stopped. The mysterious workings of sympathetic magic were not always clear to him, and sometimes there was simply no need to question them. Instead he caressed the something inside of him and Aro closed his eyes tightly with pleasure. What had been a verbal declaration had become reality, they could now never be parted.

It was a change more powerful than a vampire's turning, more powerful than any transformation Loki could have accomplished, and the aftershocks of it permeated the headquarters, causing all vampires to raise their heads wonderingly, as though they could hear a voice, or distant music, tied to the change by the magic Loki had used to transform their venom.

In the observation deck, Marcus gasped in amazement.

"What is it?" Didyme asked, unconsciously reaching for her mate.

"How extraordinary," whispered Marcus, "their bond...I've never seen anything like it…."

Natasha looked down in surprise to see that Caius had taken her hand, in front of everyone. He looked embarrassed but didn't let go.

Demetri turned suddenly from his computer screens to look across the control room towards Felix who had turned simultaneously in his direction.

The algorithms on the screen blinked a slow warning. Deep within the headquarters, the Tesseract began to glow gently, as though somewhere, somehow, something was waking it up.


	3. Found

_Warning: mature situations and violence._

* * *

Their combined magic was in flames around them, dazzling like Aro's skin in sunlight, penetrating like the heat of the sun. They burned into each other, each touch an igniting spark for the inferno that possessed their bodies and minds.

Aro's muscles coiled and strained as he drove himself into Loki, his slender fingers raking over his lean body and digging into his hips to hold him in place. Loki was moaning frantically, one hand fisted in Aro's thick hair, the other gripping one of his forearms hard enough to hurt.

Aro had used a great deal of force in his effort to find something stable enough to pin Loki against. The contents of the room, spare parts of machines that were specifically designed not to be broken, lay crushed and splintered beyond recognition. Even the surface that Loki was now writhing against sounded as though its own integrity might not last very much longer.

Just a little longer, Aro thought, just a little….

He bent his head to Loki's throat, tracing his cool tongue up its curve until he reached the exposed underside of his jaw. Loki moaned louder and Aro pressed his lips to the sensitive skin and sucked hard.

"Aro...Aro…."

Loki's voice, a broken whisper, sent an additional dart of pleasure through Aro. He captured Loki's mouth, pushing inside with the same deep, searching intensity as his other relentless movements. Loki responded passionately, thin cracks spidering out over Aro's arm as his grasp tightened still further. Aro deepened the kiss, as though trying to unlock Loki with his tongue, his fingers slipping from Loki's dark hair to brace himself against the hard material below them. More fissures snaked across his skin as Loki's hands moved to grasp his shoulders. Loki himself was covered in rapidly healing cuts and bruises, his face flecked with dried blood.

Suddenly Aro reared back to gaze eagerly into Loki's eyes, far too excited to breathe. Loki stared back, his eyes widening and his lips parted, his tongue poised in his mouth as though about to speak. It felt like the moment before a wave crashes down, before lightning spikes across the sky, before a hawk snatches its prey. Never taking his eyes from Loki, Aro raised his right hand in the air, as though about to strike a blow. The moment widened and stretched, then broke against them both. Loki drew in his breath sharply and Aro slammed his hand down, gouging the hard surface and holding on with all his strength.

The force of the climax hurt with a sweet, pleasing painfulness that made Aro feel as though he were caught in a wave of molten light. He closed his eyes tightly, his mind filled with the new sensation of having Loki living inside him, like a kind of substitute heart, better than his own.

When the shuddering of his body gradually eased away, Aro became aware again that he was pressed against Loki, his head bowed against Loki's heaving chest, and his fingers still gripping the hard surface. Loki began to laugh, his mischievous laugh that got him everything he wanted, that defied fate, that unlocked the secrets of the universe. Aro grinned with euphoric happiness, raising his head to bring himself closer to Loki.

"Are you here now, here with me completely?" Loki whispered into Aro's ear, making him shiver.

"I think you're unlikely to lose my full attention again," said Aro. He looked at Loki with a puzzled expression, fingers caressing his face.

"Loki, what exactly did I do? Did I really use your magic?"

"It is your magic as well," said Loki, gleefully pleased. "Now that you've awakened the magic I shared with you. Until now it's simply lain dormant within your venom." He slid his fingers into Aro's hair and kissed him possessively, feeling the tendrils of his magic wrapped around Aro that now bound the essence of Aro within Loki himself. He could feel this essence as though it lived inside of his chest, pulsing and alive.

_Like my heart._

Aro smiled at him, deep emotion in his face, and brushed his mouth over Loki's face, savoring the unending pleasure of their bond.

Loki glimpsed something past Aro's shoulder, debris strewn about, suspended above them. Above them?

"Aro," said Loki in a different tone of voice, feeling for the first time the upward tug of gravity on his limbs, and the resistance of Aro's body against his. His fingers caught at Aro's hair as it drifted away from him.

"Mm?" said Aro, his smile widening.

"Why are we on the ceiling?"

"Why not?" said Aro innocently. "No one else was using it."

Loki grinned and pushed against Aro, deliberately testing his strength. "What if I wasn't so docile this time, hm? Perhaps I've been too easy on you, letting you get soft in your old age."

Aro chuckled and shoved back, grinding Loki firmly back into place, then froze in mid-movement with a startled expression.

"What is it?" Loki asked, becoming suddenly anxious. "Aro?"

Aro turned his head away in the direction of the door. "Don't you hear that?"

Loki was silent, listening intently. He shook his head. "I can't...nothing unusual."

"I've heard it before," said Aro. "In memories, not my own…."

He pulled Loki close and dropped to the floor with him.

"Don't go away into your mind without me again," said Loki. "I want you here."

"This isn't like before," said Aro, moving toward the door. "Something's not right out there."

Loki followed him, quickly rematerializing their clothing just as Aro's hand turned the door handle too worried to notice that he was still naked.

On the way back to the control room, the sound intensified, making Aro stumble and put his hands over his ears.

"Describe it," said Loki sharply, frustrated with his relatively limited sense of hearing.

"It's a kind of humming, like electricity, energy, something like that…."

"You heard it in memories, whose?"

Aro struggled, a tangle of half-glimpsed images and thoughts. A dying man's fading synapses. He gasped in triumph.

"Fury. Fury remembered it. Just before, just before…." Aro broke off and stared at Loki, his hands dropping from his ears, the sound was even louder than before. "He heard it just before you arrived on Earth. Loki, it's the sound of the Tesseract."

Loki's face was unreadable for a moment, every nightmare scenario possible running through his mind. The Other, the Chitauri, even his own brother might use the Tesseract as an entryway to Earth. Then he seized Aro's arm and started off again down the corridor at a run, this time mentally calculating the nearest route to the secured section of the headquarters where the Tesseract was kept under lock and key.

The sound of the Tesseract reached a fever pitch. Aro screamed and Loki stopped immediately, catching him up in his arms and gripping him tightly, shielding his head, as though a tidal wave were bearing down on them.

He could feel the energy of the Tesseract now, even if he couldn't hear it. A crackling in the air that felt dangerous and unstable.

Then all at once it was over. Silence, and a clarity in the air again. Aro raised his head tentatively.

"The sound stopped." He disengaged himself gently from Loki and walked a few steps away, listening carefully.

There was a quality to everything that felt subtly different, just a little off, even though colors, smells, shapes remained the same.

Aro was trying to fathom the change when he felt Loki's arm slide around his waist and pull him back against him. His body met leather and metal and he turned his head just in time to see Loki materializing his battle armor in a haze of green and gold, even his helmet with its cruel sweeping horns. Loki raised his other arm and summoned his scepter into his hand.

"What's happening?" Aro whispered, his eyes wide.

"It has already happened," said Loki, his face set in grim determination. "Someone has used the Tesseract to reset reality, I can feel it."

The sense of impending danger seized Aro now like a thundercloud that turns everything to darkness with its arrival.

"The coven," he said in a quiet voice. "The agents. I need to make sure everyone is safe."

Loki tightened his arm around him protectively as he understood Aro's intention but Aro turned in his grasp and pressed his hands against Loki's chest armor, meeting Loki's iron gaze with his own. Loki recognized the flat expression of extreme neutrality in Aro's eyes, the most dangerous sight in the world if one knew Aro well. The shaken, vulnerable Aro of a few hours before was gone and in his place was once more the overlord of an ancient and dangerous race of immortals and the leader of a family he would do anything to protect.

Loki sighed. "Don't take any chances," he said firmly. "Even if this is the work of my brother, when you see the enemy, give them no quarter."

Aro nodded, then leaned in and kissed Loki, his hand sliding over the golden surface of Loki's helmet. He was gone in a blur of shadow, streaking down the corridor on his way to the control room.

Loki turned and then dove downwards, using his magic to cross through multiple layers of the headquarters without regard to structural solidity until he reached the location of the Tesseract, the most secure, most guarded heart of the SHIELD headquarters.

* * *

Aro began seeing the bodies as he got closer to the control room, SHIELD agents sprawled on the floor or slumped against the corridor walls. He hurried on until he reached the transparent doors of the control room itself. The doors were sealed shut and Aro had to pry them open, warping them a little as he did so. He paused for a moment surveying the scene. All the agents who should be in the control room were, but they too were motionless and still, some collapsed over their stations, others lying on the floor or draped over railings. Aro stepped over and around them carefully, making his way through the room until he reached one particular lifeless figure lying prone on the floor, as though she had gone down with a fight.

"Natasha," Aro said gently, brushing her red hair back from her face and cautiously running his fingers over her shoulder.

Natasha stirred, groaning, and sat up, gripping the back of her neck. "Dammit. What the hell?" She looked around, startled. "Aro, what...?"

"Someone has accessed the Tesseract," said Aro, helping her to her feet. "Loki's gone to investigate."

Around them, the others were beginning to stir, rubbing their heads, looking around in confusion. All of them showing every sign of life, beating hearts and racing pulses. All of them...human.

"Natasha," said Aro very softly. "Where are the members of my coven?"

* * *

Loki strode through the first two outer chambers of the Tesseract's sector, his cloak sweeping out behind him. He was prepared for anything and anyone but not for the sight that awaited him in the third and final chamber. The Tesseract hung suspended in the air, revolving slowly of its own volition. Around it were piled a number of bodies, without any movement or sign of life. Loki walked among them, recognizing many whose faces were turned towards him, members of Aro's Volturi coven, the only vampires who had assumed roles within the new SHIELD. Each of them had faced Loki's magic and allowed themselves to be transformed into a new species without the thirst or the need for blood. Because of this they were in some ways Loki's people as well as Aro's and the sight of them like this filled him with a fiery anger.

It was difficult to understand at the best of times whether a vampire was alive or dead. When Aro became lost in thought, he stopped moving completely, a sight which never failed to send Loki into a panic. Loki paced the chamber, trying to make some kind of determination as to what he was looking at. Were they stunned? Some kind of energy pulse from the Tesseract? Or had someone managed to resurrect Fury's foul poison?

He halted by a small dark-haired female figure lying on her side, half-draped over a large male. A younger male, looking hardly older than a boy in this state of sleep-like immobility was leaned up against them both.

Aro's family, the nearest thing Loki himself had to siblings in his newly adopted world.

He turned in frustration to the Tesseract and stretched out a gloved hand towards it. He could sense the invisible energy holding the object in the air. It felt strange, as though within the cylindrical chamber, there was a suspension of normal time and space. And yet it was not a portal, not a passageway. Something had awakened the latent power of the Tesseract and then stopped, stopped everything. Loki sensed the energy pulling at him, trying to shut him down. His magic seethed against it, preventing the force from reaching him.

Someone among the piles of bodies stirred, moving nothing more than his eyelids. In the stark white emptiness of the third chamber, Loki felt rather than heard the movement. He kept looking at the Tesseract, pretending he hadn't noticed anything, and kept on pretending while the figure, tall and dark, rose slowly and silently to it feet.

* * *

"I don't understand it," said Gianna, cradling her head in her hands. "Natasha came down to say that something was wrong with you and the other masters were going to work on a solution in the R&D labs. I looked up and I could see Caius and Marcus talking in your office. It was definitely only a few minutes ago, I could see the time on the display behind them."

Aro stroked her head soothingly and looked over at Natasha. She was standing with arms folded, glaring at the black monitor screens. The machinery of the floating headquarters was functional, and a bare minimum of navigation controls, but everything else was dead.

"It would have taken more than a few minutes to remove all the vampires from the control room," said Aro quietly.

"Why do you think you weren't knocked out, Master?" asked Gianna.

"I don't know, perhaps because I'm a vampire, or because..." he broke off.

"Because you were with Loki," Natasha said, completing his thought. Her expression was dark, remembering things, terrible things, associated with the words Tesseract and Loki.

"Loki wouldn't have done this," said Aro, catching the hint of suspicion in her voice.

"I'm sorry, Aro, he's the only suspect in sight," said Natasha. "No one else on this planet could have gotten through the protections Demetri and I just put in place."

"And I've seen his mind, and his heart," said Aro. "Don't go there, Natasha."

He turned back to Gianna and held out his hand to her. "If you would, my dear."

Gianna placed her hand in his willingly and Aro bowed his head over it, concentrating deeply. He raised his eyes to hers after a moment.

"What is it?" demanded Natasha.

"There's nothing from the past five hours," said Aro. His hand trailed up to caress Gianna's cheek as she stared at him wide-eyed. "I can't see anything because you were unconscious. The memories you have of that time are, completely and absolutely, fake."

"We've been brain-washed," said Natasha, beginning to run through in her mind all possible enemies of SHIELD capable of such technology.

Aro raised his hand abruptly for silence.

"Master…" said Gianna, worried.

Aro's face wore an expression of mingled wonder and horror, his eyes wide and his hand pressed to his chest.

"Aro," said Natasha sharply, wondering if she would be required to slap him back to consciousness as Caius had done.

"Loki…" said Aro. "He's in trouble, I can feel it."

* * *

Loki waited until the dark figure was poised to leap at him and then turned swiftly, striking forward with his scepter. His opponent was lightning fast but Loki was prepared, driving the strange vampire backwards until he hit the chamber wall. The vampire caught the scepter in his hands, just as the blade was about to impale the stoney chest, and pushed back. There was a moment's pause while they held each other in place, Loki's strength pressing forward and the vampire's resisting. Loki scowled at the stranger, his teeth bared in frustration. The stranger smirked back at him with a disconcertingly v-shaped smile, a tall, lean, dark-haired man with narrow red eyes. A color that Loki had not seen in some time, so different from the green that Aro and his coven now wore.

With a sudden burst of movement, the stranger ripped the scepter sideways and jerked Loki into the air, rushing into the middle of the chamber and the Tesseract. Loki spun in mid-flight to follow the stranger's movement and hurtled down, the scepter poised for a killing blow. The stranger leapt upward, flashing past the scepter and wrapped his hands around Loki's throat. The scepter crashed to the ground, followed by the two fighters as they fell to the floor in their struggle, rolled over and stood, locked together. Loki pressed his palm against the stranger's chest and flung him across the room in a flash of light. The stranger slammed into the opposite wall and then darted forward again in a blur of darkness. They went down together again, Loki managing to roll the stranger onto his back and pin him down.

Loki knew there was only one way to completely subdue a vampire, Aro had taught him that. He grasped the stranger's head in his hands and began to pull. Cracks appeared along the vampire's skin and the skin itself began to turn a sickly grey. Loki grinned triumphantly and then choked as the stranger grasped his throat with one hand and began to squeeze with surprising force. Loki focused his magic through his hands and began to split the stranger's throat apart with a shrieking sound like grating metal, the lethal hand loosening from around Loki's throat.

"Don't kill him."

Loki paused immediately and looked up to see Aro standing over them, with that same unreadable expression of neutrality in his face.

"Not yet," said Aro. His voice was dangerously soft.

"Do you know him?" asked Loki, panting for breath.

"Yes." Aro's voice was like the whisper of silk.

"What is he?" asked Loki, maintaining enough pressure to keep the vampire from regaining his ability to move.

"Something which should not be," said Aro. He looked down impassively at Aquila's long, beautiful face, half-frozen under Loki's attack but still aware. Not much different from the last time he had seen him, burning under an ancient sky in a far off time.


End file.
